Using the Guard to patrol the Nations Capital armed does not give me the warm and fuzzies. I have known plenty of service members of all branches that I wouldn't trust with a slingshot. But for all I know the examples you cite do not apply, I would hope that they are being selective and would at least use MP's and LEO's, there are plenty of them that serve in the Guard. The Guard does have qualified members, and I have not read anything that tells me they are not being utilized. Non enforcement type of support to local authorities, great idea. If their armed simply for personal protection, I'm good with that. If they are patrolling, responding to calls...not so good.
CCW Reciprocity in Washington DC!!! I hope so!!!
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I think you underestimate or military personnel. Be it national guards or otherwise. I personally am offended by these remarks as I'm sure others will be as well. I have seen police officers who are afraid of their own shadow. Officers that never held a firearm till they went to academy. Officers who will openly admit that they are only in for the pay and pensions. Both of which are pretty good in NY. It is what it is. But rather than do nothing and expect different results, something is now being done.
You misunderstand. The military does what it does very well, indeed. What they do not do at all is civilian policing - do note that DOD Police (and similarly but separately the US Marine Corps Civilian Police) provide this function at domestic US bases.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion on police. In DC, MPD had been making progress on reducing violent crime that peaked there (in the modern era) in 2023. There are now and have been several US cities with higher crime rates. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5470828-fbi-data-violent-crime-cities/
Do note that Memphis has already had 145 murders this year with a slighltly smaller population than DC ... kind of puts 100 murders within DC in perspective.
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larry8
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Memphis, Chicago, NY, Phily., Detroit, They are headed your way.
It is no skin off my teeth what they do. 'Cause "Krupke, we have troubles of our own."
It is not about the crime rate in DC, but something else.
Does it bother you that they are expected to pay taxes, register for the draft, and are subject to the laws of the United States, but because of geography they have no vote?
Seems rather arbitrary, especially when we remember that the reason for that is Thomas Jefferson's weird theories about the power of a state government in the daily life of a citizen.
**shades of Kent State 1970**
Gentlemen, many of us are veterans of the armed forces or law-enforcement. We know that there is a logical fallacy between what other people attribute our skills to be, what our strengths are, and what are our weaknesses are. We all know that there are individual high and low performers., And we are all familiar with the systems of risk mitigation, Controls, policies, training, and ultimately individual discretion that we trust and rely on to do our jobs. We are also all familiar with instances where one or more of those fail, and when adverse consequence has happened.
Introducing people without local familiarization, on an unclear mission, with unknown training, to a high stress situation is never a good idea. I'm not claiming that the national guardsman detail to pick up trash are going to go rogue on someone. I am expressing a concern that a national guard soldier may well find themselves precipitating 2025's version of the Boston massacre if they are placed in a high stress situation with unclear guidance and/or they have personal discretion that may not meet the moment. And before all of the apologists and denialists come sprinting to say it could never happen, remember that Ohio national guard troopers not unlike those today decided on their own to shoot a lot of live rounds into peacefully protesting college students because their feelings were hurt.
And that's before we even begin to touch the prospect that we have a chain of command that may well be defining lawful activity as criminal, we do not know the specific roles the National Guard is even there for, and we do not know what is happening in general terms. There's nothing quite as interesting as a secretive police force, right?
oneeyedpete
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Dude, residents of D.C. have a vote, they just don't have a rep in congress and given the quality of current members of congress, they should consider themselves lucky indeed! Neither do residents of Puerto Rico, Guam or the US Virgin Islands btw.
Your last statement certainly looks political to me!
Your last statement certainly looks political to me!
Do they have an **electoral** vote?
Can their representative to Congress cast a vote?
Do they have representation in the Senate?
Fundamentally unfair. Just like people in our territories.
I mean, by your logic, they don't "deserve" a 2A, because "those are the rules" and they chose to live there…
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National Guard is not the 'military'. The U.S. National Military has six main branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. I sure don't see 'National Guard' in that..
You see the National Guard is a dual-role force, serving as the primary combat reserve for the Army and Air Force while also providing a state-level defense force for communities in the event of domestic emergencies, natural disasters, and civil unrest.
National Guard members hold civilian jobs or attend college and train part-time, but are ready to deploy for both overseas missions and homeland emergencies when called upon by their state governor or the President.
Simple remedy... they need to be considered citizens of a surrounding state and VOTE IN THERE ELECTIONS. They can pick what state they want to be citizens of... pay taxes in that state and vote in that state. I fact I'd prefer they go live in those states and D.C. become a sort of super federal park... only federal officials that work in D.C. live there.. if it means a lot of D.C. be given back to the surrounding states.. then do so!
Thanks for the 'cut and paste' half-explanation.
The Guardsmen and Reservists that I supervised in two police agencies only deployed with their units; in that way (they explained to me) they had a known organizational support structure. Just because these guys and gals had police jobs didn't at all mean the state Guard command or Reserve units sought them out individually. None that worked for me had a Military Police nor Civil Affairs MOS, but ranged from transportation to avionics support to recon to human resource management to water purification.
The Commanding Generial of the D.C. National Guard is subordinate solely to the President of the United States. This authority to activate the D.C. National Guard has been delegated, by the President, to the Secretary of Defense and further delegated to the Secretary of the Army. The D.C. National Guard is the only National Guard unit, out of all of the 54 states and territories, which reports only to the President. State NG units report to a TAG, who reports to the governor unless Federalized, wherein they are under DOD command.
Since the DC Guard (Army and Air Force) have been called up under Title 32, you'll need to inform the Pentagon that these troops are NOT military and that the Pentagon is wrong when identifying them as such. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-S...-in-dc-to-support-federal-local-law-enforcem/
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Thank you for showing just what the NG in D.C. is doing..
You can see their ROE is quite tame... ""They're all trained in de-escalation techniques, and of course, always retain the inherent right to self-defense," she said. "They will not be arresting people, but they may temporarily limit the movement of an individual who has entered a restricted or secured area without permission. So, this would be very similar to the LA mission, where we could temporarily [detain] someone and then turn them over to the proper law enforcement authorities."
"We really think we're going to be a force multiplier ... we're going to allow law enforcement to better conduct the necessary operations that they need to conduct around the capital," she said. "And we're going to be there ... supporting them."
So it is all fine with me.
You're quite welcome! I do note that you were in favor of the Guard deployments before you knew their mission or that they were 'military,' so the added info wasn't critical, apparently.
By the way, ALBQ has had NM ARNG troops working with police for several months. They did it right - the city asked governor, who agreed; the state and city agreed on the mission, parameters, and training. So far there've been not ugly incidents, and the citizens seem happy. The actual function is very like that of ALBQ PD Police Service Aides, who do a wide variety of police support functions. I believe they're deployed 60 at a time, but could be wrong.
www.cabq.gov
APD Successfully Completes First Week of Partnership with New Mexico National Guard
Transparency and Community Safety Remain Top Priorities
They did it right. City asked governor who agreed. That's great. BUT what do you do when a city doesn't do it right. Especially when the city (district) is the capital of the most powerful nation the world has ever known. Do you let the city burn? The problem with this country and this thread is people don't choose sides based on facts and results. They base their opinions on whether or not they like the big guy on Pennsylvania Ave. Guard in NM good. Guard in DC is an 18 yr old hay seed from West Virginia that knows nothing about policing. Can't have it both ways.By the way, ALBQ has had NM ARNG troops working with police for several months. They did it right - the city asked governor, who agreed; the state and city agreed on the mission, parameters, and training. So far there've been not ugly incidents, and the citizens seem happy. The actual function is very like that of ALBQ PD Police Service Aides, who do a wide variety of police support functions. I believe they're deployed 60 at a time, but could be wrong.
APD Successfully Completes First Week of Partnership with New Mexico National Guard
Transparency and Community Safety Remain Top Priorities
I knew the guard was not 'military' in the sense of Posse Comitatus. And my wife had already told me they were not 'cops' there but assisted the cops.
HUH???!!!
They're going to allow open carry of long arms?
Something is wrong in that story.
Not true. Unless things have changed, there are two lines to enter the Texas State Capitol building. One is for citizens with a Texas license to carry. The other line is for people that Texas has not run a background check on.
Let's stay with facts.
DC wasn't burning. Their crime rate was falling from the 2023 peak, which was lower than another peak in the '90s and the highest ever in the early '70s. Feel free to bother to check.
The city gets to choose; both DC and Albq are Home Rule jurisdictions. They're accountable to their citizens. In Albq, crime rates were rising, not falling, and higher than in DC.
Once there was agreement, the city, the state, and the Guard agreed on the mission, the parameters, the training, and the deployments. The Guardsmen got several weeks of job-specific training.
The ALBQ Guard experiment used home state soldiers who had weeks of specific training on specific topics, as did their noncoms and involved officers. Throwing out-of-state folks into a city of 700,000 as happened in DC with no idea of how to find McDonald's on the street with a few hours of training that sure looked like an afterthought is a disservice to the troops and the citizens.
So what's your experience in law enforcement?
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No. The Posse Comitatus Act (18 USC at 1385) does not prevent the Army Natl Guard or the Air National Guard under state authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state's governor. The DC deployments fail in that 1) DC is not a state, and 2) Guardsmen from out-of-state are not acting within their home state, nor were they invited by a non-existent governor.
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